Basket-style carriers are commonly employed to package beverage bottles. They include a separate cell for each bottle, from which the bottles can be readily removed, and a center handle partition for easily carrying the package. The carriers are fabricated from a blank which is folded and glued into collapsed carrier form, after which the collapsed carrier is erected and the bottles inserted.
Basket-style carriers are strong and easy to carry, and their design permits the top portions of bottles packaged in the carrier to be seen. This is advantageous when the distinctive shape of the top portions of the bottles or other packaged articles is suggestive of the brand. The unique shape of some articles, however, is not limited to their top portions but may include their overall appearance, including the design or configuration of the bottom portion. In such cases it is desirable to use a package which exposes as much of the article as possible. This would also expose portions of the label on the bottle, which is normally further unique to the brand of product. It would be expected, however, that such a package might create a problem of carrier strength, since to expose the articles more fully could require structural portions of carriers of conventional design to be eliminated. It would also be expected to create cost problems if the design of the blank from which the carrier is fabricated requires expensive fabrication techniques or if the carrier were to require a two-piece blank.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an article carrier which allows major portions of packaged articles to be exposed to view, but which provides adequate strength and is not more expensive than conventional basket-style carriers of comparable size.